Interesting to see the emphasis on real names is also picked up by MySpace; see the reasons in Tom Anderson’s blog piece below:
Current mood:
gratefulCategory: MySpace
You know how you can change your display name or default picture? You know how you have some friends who change it everyday or 10 times a day? You know how you can never find or identify them beacuse they change it all the time?! Well that’s the thinking behind the “display my full name” on MySpace.
We put this feature out there almost six months ago, but people weren’t really noticing it, so I wanted to put up this announcement to spread the word.
You’re now able to show your full name on MySpace under your picture, while your display name stays on top. Look at my picture to the left, you’ll see “Tom” above my picture and “Tom Anderson” underneath it. It’s that simple.
To turn it on for myspace/profile, click here.
The idea is that your full/real name should never change, even if you decide to give yourself a new nickname for a few months (or an afternoon). This makes it easier to find your friends in search, or in any of the places where you can type in your friends name to do something:
Tagging them in a photo
Finding them on your friends list
Inviting them to an event
Composing a mesage
On the status history page when you just want to show ONE person’s status history
We have some rules around this. If you’re going to display your full name, it must be your real name. If you don’t want to display it, that’s fine. But if you are going to choose to display it, then it must be real. This to avoid confusion, and to make sure the purpose of the feature isn’t ruined by people putting goofy stuff in there.
Finally, just to let you know, we’ll be adding this in more places–you’ll just be able to type in a friends name to find them in other areas where it makes sense. Instead of searching a list of friends, you’ll be able to type in a friends name to create a preferred list for a blog, to put someone in a friend category, or to select your top friends, etc.
Related posts:
Profiles add huge value to an online community, and I think you are right in your implication that their value is often overlooked.
Yes, the community manager should encourage members to complete their profiles (a good start is for the community manager to complete their own!). Even better is when members encourage other members to fill out their profiles.
I find that very effective, and it comes across as less of ‘an order’ than if the request comes from someone in a position of perceived authority (such as a community manager).
- Martin Reed
This comment was originally posted on Stuart Glendinning Hall
Thanks Martin, I like your point about the power of members asking other members to complete their profiles. BTW by coincidence I noticed today that MySpace recently made some tweaks to bring ‘real names’ into greater prominence and utility on the community.
This comment was originally posted on Stuart Glendinning Hall
Pingback: Unlocking the real value of community profiles | Stuart Glendinning Hall
Hi Stuart,
I was intrigued by the implied assumption in this statement:
“But if as community manager you have a large percentage of members that are anonymous this will obviously negative impact on the quality of conversations.”
I would argue that a very large proportion of online communities thrive on the fact that they are anonymous, but anonymous in the sense that the users do not use their real names but are still identifiable.
Communities such as Facebook thrive on real names since the data they store correlate directly with the real world. however, where there is no need for this mapping real name may not be essential and can even be detrimental in certain cases e.g. support groups, medical advice forums etc.
This comment was originally posted on Stuart Glendinning Hall
Fair point Mark, I guess in my defence I was trying to argue against the default use of usernames. Real names certainly makes sense for professional networks where knowing who’s who can be a positive bonus to encourage networking.
I’ll keep an eye out for blog posts which example the value of anonymity, particularly for sites where sensitive content. Off the top of my head Patient Opinion (www.patientopinion.org.uk) makes good use of usernames — Frostbite298 through to magic259!
This comment was originally posted on Stuart Glendinning Hall